Lady GaGa
Lady Gaga (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986) is an American recording artist. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution. Released on August 19, 2008, her debut album, The Fame, reached number one in the UK, Canada, Austria, Germany and Ireland, and reached the top-ten in numerous countries worldwide; in the United States, it peaked at two on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200 Billboard 200] chart and topped [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance/Electronic_Albums Billboard]'s Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", co-written and co-produced with RedOne, became international number-one hits, topping the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100] in the United States as well as the charts of other countries. The album later earned a total of six Grammy Award nominations and won awards for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording. In early 2009 she embarked on her first headlining tour, The Fame Ball Tour. By the fourth quarter of the year, she had released her second studio album The Fame Monster, with the global chart-topping lead single "Bad Romance", as well as having embarked on her second headlining tour of the year, The Monster Ball Tour. Lady Gaga is inspired by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop musicians such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. She has also stated fashion is a source of inspiration for her songwriting and performances. Gaga was ranked the 73rd Artist of the 2000-10 decade by Billboard.[1] As of May 2010, Gaga has sold over 15 million albums and over 40 million singles worldwide.[2] In May 2010, Time magazine included Gaga in its annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In June 2010, Forbes listed Gaga fourth on its list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world; she is also ranked as the second most powerful musician in the world.[3][4] Life and career 1986–2004: Early life Stefani Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of Joseph Germanotta, an Italian American internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia Bissett.[5][6] She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14.[7] At the age of 11, Germanotta attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side,[8][9] but has stressed that she does not come from a wealthy background, saying that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything — my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."[10] An avid thespian in high school musicals, Germanotta portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.[11] She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak."[12][13] Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate.[14] Referring to her "expressive, free spirit", Gaga told Elle magazine "I'm left-handed!"[15] At age 17, Germanotta gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts on August 23, 2003 and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics.[7][16] Germanotta felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career.[17] Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll for Tisch if she was unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said.[11] 2005–07: Career beginnings Germanotta had initially signed with Def Jam Recordings at the age of 19, although she was dropped by the label after only three months.[18] Shortly after, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed.[19] The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys",[19] a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T."[20] She moved into an apartment on the Lower East Side and recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel for an audio book accompanying the children's book The Portal in the Park by Cricket Casey.[21] She also started the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. They recorded an EP of their ballads at a studio underneath a liquor store in New Jersey, becoming a local fixture at the downtown Lower East Side club scene.[11] She began experimenting with drugs soon after, while performing at neo-burlesque shows.[8] Her father did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months.[8][20] Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Germanotta was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."[22] He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song. Gaga was actually a glitch; I typed 'Radio Ga Ga' in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow 'Radio' got changed to 'Lady'. She texted me back, "That's it." After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She’s like, "Don’t ever call me Stefani again."[22] 2008–10: The Fame and The Fame Monster By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame.[20] She combined different genres on the album, "from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks".[18] The Fame received positive reviews from critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 71/100.[35] The album peaked at number one in Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia and the United States.[36][37] Its lead single "Just Dance", topped the charts in six countries—Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording.[38] The following single, "Poker Face", was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States.[39] It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.[40] Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block,[41] she ultimately headlined her own concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which began on March 2009.[42] 2010–present: Upcoming third studio album Gaga's secon d studio album and third major release Born This Way, whose title was announced during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards,[88] will be released on May 23, 2011. Its arrival follows the release of its homonymous lead single on February 11, 2011.[89] The previous date for the single release of February 13, 2011, was tweeted by Gaga at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 2011.[90] Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major ... metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats", Born This Way will be Gaga's third release in three years.[91] She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on album for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day."[92] With two tracks already confirmed by Gaga – one she has been performing during The Monster Ball Tour,[93] she has referred to the album as "the greatest" of the decade about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid."[94] Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level",[95] Gaga characterized her new music as "som ething so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."[96] On February 13, Gaga performed live for the first time her single "Born This Way", released on February 11, on the 53rd Grammy Awards. She was carried by fashion models through the red carpet in a gigantic embryo-shaped incubator (called "The Vessel" by its designer, Hussein Chalayan[97]), from where she emerged onstage for her performance. The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, being the 19th number-one debut and the 1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.[98] As well as this, the song debuted at number one in seven other countries and sold more than one million digital copies in five days. Previous to the release of the album, the singer had bought her own music in October 2010[99] and in February 2011 was accused of being self-promotional.[100] Lending her vocals elsewhere, Gaga also paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the forthcoming animated feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", was released on February 11, 2011, without Gaga's vocals. The duet version is only featured in the film.[101][102] Twitter On August 21,2010, Lady GaGa was named the most followed on Twitter. She later released a video, thanking her "Little Monsters". Also see Twitter. Singles Chronology (Redirected from Lady GaGa Singles Chronology)